


And They Lived Happily Ever After

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, F/M, their baby girl is Very Opinionated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 09:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20525744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: At bedtime, Cisco's daughter turns down the stories of Buttercup, Luke Skywalker, and the Little Mermaid. The story she really wants is the tale of the handsome and clever mechanical engineer, the brilliant and beautiful doctor, and the way they fell in love.Written for Killervibe Week, Day 7: Fairytale





	And They Lived Happily Ever After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hedgi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedgi/gifts).

The bedroom smelled like bubble-gum flavored bubble bath, crayons, and cool night air, because from the time she could stomp her tiny feet, Rebecca Ramon had insisted on sleeping with the window cracked on all but the coldest of winter nights or rainiest of thunderstorms. 

She didn’t get cold, but she did get annoyed when her dolls, carefully lined up under the window, got their hair wet.

“Daddy,” she said, burrowing into her blankets. “Tell me a story.”

“We just read like three books, mijita. It’s time for you to go to sleep.”

She turned her eyes up to him. Bambi-brown, just like her mama’s. “Por favor, Papi?”

And just like when her mama did it, he melted without the slightest struggle. “Okay, okay.” He plopped back down on the rug next to her bed, stretching his legs out. He reached out and brushed her hair off her forehead. “Which one?”

She grinned in triumph. “The best one.”

He grinned back. “Okay, so. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful farm girl named Buttercup.”

“Not that one.”

“You love that one.”

“That’s not the best one.”

“Oh, right, I know the one you’re talking about. Once upon a time, there was a humble farm boy named Luke Skywalker.”

“No, Daddy. Not that one either.”

“Aren’t you Miss Picky. All right. Once upon a time, there was a little mermaid.”

“No, Daddy! That one ends sad. Fairytales shouldn’t end sad.”

“You got a point there. So which one?”

She sat up and fixed him with a gimlet stare. Also like her mama. “You know the one. Stop being silly, Daddy.”

“Oh that one,” Cisco said, like he hadn’t known the story she wanted from the first moment she’d asked for one. “Oh, okay. But I can’t start telling it until all the little girls in here are lying down with their heads on the pillow and the blankets pulled up." 

She flopped back down and hauled the covers up to her chin. "Tell it.”

He kissed her forehead. “Okay. Here we go. Once upon a time, there was a handsome and clever mechanical engineer. One day, as he was doing battle with a nasty little troll, a beautiful and brilliant doctor came -”

“Gene'tist - ”

“Doctor and geneticist came to his aid,” Cisco corrected himself. “Even in the midst of battle, he had a really good feeling when he looked at her.”

“A vibe?”

“Nooooo, not a vibe, because he didn’t have his vibe powers yet. But a good feeling. Riiiiiight - ” He walked his fingers over the blanket and tickled her round little belly. “Here.”

She giggled. “What kind of feeling?”

“The feeling that he really, really liked her, and she was going to be very important to him.” He tweaked the blanket straight. “Anyway, they vanquished the troll together, and then he learned that she was betrothed to a brave and handsome knight. But that was okay, because the knight made her happy, and the engineer already knew that he wanted her to be happy no matter what. And the knight was a really good guy, too, so they all became friends and went on many scientific adventures together.”

She squirmed a little. “And then the ‘splosion.”

“Shh. I’m telling it. Okay, so then there came the night they thought would be their greatest triumph. They had been helping a wizard -”

“Who was _bad.”_

“But they didn’t know that yet. They had been helping a wizard with his great project, and they thought it would teach them the mysteries of the universe. But unbeknownst to them, the wizard had sabotaged his own project, and caused a huge explosion for his own wicked purposes. Tragically, the knight died, and so did many other people.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand, twisting his wedding ring around the base of his finger. “And the engineer and the doctor were sad.”

“Yep. We were really sad.”

“So, so sad.”

“Yep. The engineer and the doctor stayed with the wizard -:”

“Because they didn’t know yet. That he was bad.”

“Nope. They stayed and helped him and took care of a noble scientist who had been struck down in the explosion and lay as though dead for many months.”

“And his lady who was a truth-teller came and visited and she was sad too.”

“Not for long, because the noble scientist woke up, and when he woke up, they all discovered that the wizard’s explosion had granted them extraordinary powers. Now, with great power comes great responsibility, so the doctor and the engineer and the scientist and the truth-teller all started to take care of their city when bad guys would attack.”

“Bad guys like giant sharks.”

“Right. Giant sharks and radioactive men and evil Nazis from another dimension. They fought them all. They discovered the wizard’s perfidy and they defeated him, and they battled many more evildoers over the years.”

“An’ they were bes’ friends.”

“Best friends,” he affirmed. “Now, it’s important to know, the whole time, the doctor and the engineer were always each others’ favorite person. Sometimes one or the other of them would love someone else for awhile. But the whole time, they were always each others’ favorite person.”

“Very favoritest.”

“Yup. Now the years passed, and they battled the forces of evil and had many adventures, and slowly, slowly, slowly, the engineer came to realize something.”

“What?” Rebecca asked, although she knew. 

“Friends are wonderful and amazing. He had lots of friends and so did she, and they both valued them all. But the way he felt about the doctor was different. And then one day, he realized that all the times he’d been saying to her, 'You’re my best friend,’ what he’d really meant, even without knowing it, was 'I love you more than anyone else in the world.’”

“In the multiverse,” Rebecca said.

“In the whole entire multiverse,” Cisco said. “He was a little worried about this, because he didn’t think she felt quite the same way about him.”

“But she did.”

“Shhhh. You’re getting ahead of the story again. So he decided to himself that because he loved her, he was happy to be her best friend forever, if that was what she wanted.”

“But that’s not what she wanted.”

“Spoilers!”

Rebecca giggled and whispered, “It’s not,” into the blanket.

“Anyway, he continued to tell her, 'you’re my best friend,’ and only he knew that what he was really saying was 'I love you more than anyone else in the multiverse.’”

“Then the battle.”

“Then came the great battle. They were fighting against a villain who had tormented them for months. They were cut off and alone with him, just the two of them, but they weren’t worried because they were together. Still, it was a long and arduous battle.”

“And then she did the brave thing.”

“Yes. The villain aimed a blow at the engineer that surely would have hurt him very badly, if not killed him. But the doctor pushed him out of the way and took the blow herself. It knocked her all the way off the cliff and into the water.”

“Oh no,” Rebecca whispered, eyes wide.

“Oh no is exactly what the engineer thought. He threw one last desperate blow at the villain and knocked him out. But he didn’t even stop to revel in it because he had to go get the doctor. If she was seriously hurt or even drowned, he didn’t know what he would do. He had almost seen her die once before and he couldn’t bear to go through that again.”

“But she was okay!” Rebecca sat up and patted his hand as if she thought he might need comforting, even though he told this story at least once a week. “Daddy, she was okay.”

“She was,” he said. “He helped her out of the water and said, 'why would you do something like that?’ She coughed up water and said, 'because I love you and I couldn’t bear to see you die.’ And the engineer felt his heart take flight because this was the thing he’d always wanted to hear. He said, 'I love you too,’ and they shared true love’s first kiss right there.”

“And then they got married!”

“And then they got married and they had a little princess all their own, who needs to go to sleep now.” Cisco pulled the covers up again, then leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Te quiero, mija. Sweet dreams.”

“Te quiero,” she mumbled. blinking the long slow blinks of a sleepy child. In another moment, she was out, her round little cheeks and rosebud lips soft and slack.

He smoothed the blanket again, switched off her bedside lamp, double-checked her nightlight, and slipped out the door, leaving it open a crack in case she called for one of her parents in the night.

He followed the quiet glow of a reading lamp into the living room, where Caitlin was curled up on the couch, poring over a book. She looked up. “How many books did she get out of you?”

“Three,” he said, flopping onto the couch. Picking up her feet, he put them in his lap. “And a bedtime story.”

Caitlin shook her head, smiling. “You’re such a softy. Was it our story?”

“Of course.”

“The end of that is very sweet. but a little inaccurate.”

"Poetic license,” he said, “You really want me telling our daughter I pulled you out of the drink and yelled 'are you out of your fucking mind?’ The f-word’s gonna go over real well at preschool.”

“She knows the word _Nazi, _and if you ask me that’s a lot more foul than the f-word. But I see your point.” She put her book on the side table and propped her head on her hand. “It’s a beautiful story.”

He grinned at her and tickled her feet. Her toes curled up. “My favorite.”

She fluttered her lashes. “Are you going to tell me a bedtime story now?”

“Hey,” he complained, not entirely seriously. “Why do I have to tell all the bedtime stories? Don’t I ever get one?”

“You want a bedtime story?”

“Yeah, and make sure it doesn’t end sad." 

She swung her legs down, scooted over, and snuggled into his side. Automatically, he put his arm around her. "Okay,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ve got one. Once upon a time, there was a father and husband who did his best every single day to make his daughter and wife the happiest people in the world.”

He kissed her temple. “And did he?”

“He did,” she said, and lifted her head to kiss his lips. “And they all lived happily ever after.”

FINIS


End file.
